


Missing And Forgiven

by 10percent



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Crystal Gems, F/F, Homeworld Gems - Freeform, Lapidot slow burn, Lapis needs to chill, Partially Corrupt Lapis, Pearl needs a nap, Pearl/Peridot if you squint, Peridot thinks too much, Phantom!Lazuli, Redemption, lapidot - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-07-12 15:08:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7110622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/10percent/pseuds/10percent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story where all the most inconvenient things tend to occur one after another. How are these gems supposed to protect a planet from all the things on it AND inside of it? Maybe the question isn't how, but WHAT. What exactly are they protecting this planet from? Lapidot Redemption fic, slow build. Moved work over from FF.net and looking to continue</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Accidents

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Redemption fic, cannon up until episode 21 of season 2 (you know, when the drill almost turns Amethyst into dirt pizza but Peridot saves her?), yeah, then it's totally divergent. Written in a bomb some time ago, but I'm gonna continue with it as it is for the sake of story. Gonna shoot alotta my own head-cannons here that I had at the time too. There WILL be some eventual Lapidot, It'll happen at some point. I promise. Also tucked in some minor changes and cleaned it up a bit so it's a tad more professional than the work on FF.net. Please enjoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stars this fic is so old... No, Jasper and Garnet aren't dead.

"Okay, but what do you mean you "found Malachite" what significance is this thing to the Cluster?!" A particular short green gem flailed her arms exasperatedly, brows knit over her wide confused eyes as she gazed upon the "leader" of the Crystal Gems. Peridot seemed to visibly take a step back, small nose crumpling in distaste "I recognize the gem name, but what even is this "Malachite"? Is it a weapon we are going to use against the Cluster?"

"Malachite is a monstrous fusion between Jasper and Lapis Lazuli-"

"W- What?! So you mean to tell me that's where my escort and informant went? To the bottom of the ocean stuck together in some weird... FUSION?!"

"I know it's hard to follow, but please try to keep up, Lapis kept the fusion held below the ocean in a last ditch attempt to protect Steven from Jasper's wrath." Pearl nonchalantly informed the shorter with a disinterested expression from her slumped and tired position on the couch, facing the ceiling with bored eyes. They had spent weeks trying to work together on that damn drill, but as they had witnessed when the drill had spun out and drove itself into the distance, they still had a lot of work to do. Pearl didn't particularly like working with the smaller gem. No one did.

Garnet continued, "the fusion was horrendously unstable, and we fear both gems might be becoming lost to the fusion. In a sense..." a pause sounded in the space that was deemed Steven's living room as the tall fusion looked to the floor and clenched her hands into tight fists. All eyes of the room's occupants on her "In a sense, the fusion is becoming corrupt. We need to separate these gems by force or we risk making the biggest enemy we've ever had."

"...can we not postpone this problem until after the Cluster has been stopped?"

Amethyst scoffed and rolled her eyes at the gem "Wow Peri, that was probably one of the most insensitive things I've ever heard come out of your mouth, even for you."

"-Well excuse me, but something that IS going to destroy THE ENTIRETY of this planet at any second sounds a bit more threatening than a fusion between my former Homeworld accomplices."

"I would unnaturally agree with you, Peridot.." Garnet hushed the banter with her own smooth opinion "but said fusion is climbing out onto the beach like a feral animal and is heading for Beach City as we speak."

Sure enough, a loud roar could be heard a distance away that shook the walls of the wooden beach-house slightly. Everyone jumped to their feet, weapons at the ready. Well, everyone except for Steven, whom held his shield in hand, and Peridot who cowered behind him with wide frightened eyes. Pearl sighed at the sight, Peridot was always talk, no bite. Always.

"Look, Peridot. If you can't summon you weapon, you might as well stay behind. You'll just be a liability to the team out there and we can't afford that kind of handicap right now-"

"Liability..?" The shorter glared daggers at Pearl, lime orbs drawing into hard slits behind her visor as her brows frowned, voice becoming an octave higher in seething livid anger "Handicap?! Listen here you... You PEARL. I may not be inept for combat like the rest of you. I am a TOP NOTCH engineer and an EXPERT pilot-" her eyes shot open wide as a thought literally punched her in the face, or well, a thought came to her about being punched in the face that one time some days ago. Her body began to shake as she erupted with laughter that could only be explained by the word "insane"

"Great, Malachite-zilla is on the louse and we have a cracked gem on our hands."

"W- What? I- I- I'm not c- cracked!" Peridot managed to choke the words out between fits of her hysterical laughter before she put her hands on Amethyst's shoulders, the shoulders of the gem that had previously mocked her "I'm a PILOT!" She quickly wheeled from the surprised and confused gem to face the young gem-hybrid "Steven, please accompany me to the barn, and fast!"

Malachite roared a low bellow that shook the sand, massive amounts of seaweed falling off the grossly inflamed steaming body of the large fusion. It had gotten much bigger sense they had last encountered it, jaw falling out of that now swollen face and rows of teeth protruding from lips and cheeks. With it's glowing green radioactive eyes it glared at the gems, it brought a thick meaty hand covered in barnacles up to swat at Pearl who jumped away with practiced grace.

"Aim for that nose!" That was easier said than done, all kinds of sea life had grown over parts of Malachite's face, including the gem nose. A pained yelp escaped the monstrous being as a large boulder connected with the side of it's head, disorienting it slightly. Peridot donned the driver's seat of her "giant robot" and stood a few paces away, readying another large boulder, a look of determination in her eyes as she bared her teeth at the fusion.

"Should we ready the cannons?" Amethyst shouted over the noise of the fight to Garnet who had pulled herself out of a hole Malachite had punched her into.

"Yes, but we will only use them as a last resort. Steven, go with Amethyst and wait for my signal!" The boy nodded as he and the purple gem started off toward the floral cannons that were laying in wait under a sheet by the front steps.

"Amethyst, we aren't really going to shoot her with these are we?" They tugged the fabric off the large gem weapons and began to angle them in the direction of the corrupt being "I- I mean... Lapis could still be in there. What about her..?"

"I don't know, Steven.. I just don't know."

The fusion was relentless, pushing forward despite the combine efforts of the three gems. Pearl had managed to flip up onto the back of the monster and make a jab at the blue gem that rested there, but one of the arms reached up and snagged her by the leg, throwing her backwards and far into the ocean.

With a grit of her teeth and a firm jaw, Garnet turned to the green mechanized gem "Peridot, throw me!"

"What?!"

"Throw me! Get me as close to her face as fast as possible!"

"My stars, I'm surrounded by crazy idiot clods!" She didn't argue though as the darker gem came to her, hauling herself up into the machines metal claws.

"I've got a pretty good hunch this'll work, trust me." That's maybe asking a lot, but it's not like she hasn't been forced to trust these gems before. Peridot lifted the other into the air as Garnet held on with one hand, the other clenched tight in a gauntlet-fitted fist. Some beeps and the sound of multiple buttons being jammed in rapid succession filled their ears before the machine began to spin it's upper half in a dizzyingly fast manner, feet remaining firmly planted on the beach. Rockets were activated from the shoulder of the robot, boosting the speed to a blurred and distorted rate to the point something in the cab of the bot started to blink red and wail loudly in warning.

"You got one shot at this, you know?" The smaller gem shouted over the vortex of noise and velocity they had created.

"THROW ME, PERIDOT!" And with a scream from the green gem, she did. The sound emitted when Garnet left the metal was something akin to thunder, the volume bursting every window out of the buildings and cars closest to the beach, cutting the power to many surrounding residents, and temporarily rendering occupants deaf.

It all happened so fast, in a flash of light, both Garnet and the monster were gone. Sand quietly filling the hand-prints left behind by the massive fusion. When the machine had finally stopped spinning from the aftermath, Peridot met Amethyst's eyes, both of them wearing a matching expression of "Oh shit"

A distant boom was heard, that being the only sound aside from the labored, panicked breathing from Steven and the sound of the waves gently lapping the shore. Out of the corner of her eye, Peridot was the only one that caught a distant shimmer in the afternoon sky that the boom flowed after. Turning her gaze fully in the direction of that little sparkle, the robot's long arms slunk into the sand as it fell into it's knees.

It was over.

"Wh... what happened..?" Pearl, soggy and disoriented, walks over to stand beside the green gem who looked very distant.

"I think.. maybe I threw her too hard.." that voice was very small, Pearl had to strain herself to listen. Amethyst jogged up to the others with Steven hot on her heels.

"Peri, what was that... that boom?"

"Could have been a number of things... but," She audibly swallowed hard, hands breaking into a cold sweat over the controls of her mech. Eyes unwavering on that spot "but, I think that was the sound of Garnet leaving this planet's atmosphere.."

That night was scary quiet, half the town still having not regained power and they were still missing one Crystal Gem. Pearl tended to Steven up in the loft-space bedroom, the boy whom still hadn't recovered his hearing was making the white gem consider taking him to Rose's fountain just in case his ears were broken.

Amethyst and Peridot sat idling side by side on the couch, the thin green gem still looking as lost as she did when she had possibly thrown their designated team leader into orbit.

"Yeo man, don't sweat it. I'm sure she's fine! She's a hella strong gem, she'll probably warp back in within the day with a sombrero and maracas dancing to some weird up-beat music from distant lands or whatever." She reached out a hand to gently lay it on a taught shoulder in an attempt to comfort the other, but the smaller stood before she could establish contact.

"I need a moment, sorry.." With that, she walked stiffly out the front door and down the steps. The beach was just as quiet as everywhere else, though the sound of the water helped drown out the clawing grip of the silence. There were no moon tonight.

She needed a walk.

Small feet padded along the sand as she walked a ways from the house. Out here it was just her, the deep blue sea, and the stars above. Sitting, she let her gaze dance over the dark horizon, finding that space where sky met water and watching it intently like looking into a void.

She couldn't think.

For once in her life, her thoughts were completely gone.

Less than gone.

Time to start up that train of thought again... So, what made her head ghostly clear like this..? Maybe the centrifugal force from being so close to the center-most point of a powerful velocity that broke the laws of time and space messed with the inside of her gem or something. Maybe the fight had never actually ended, Garnet wasn't the one whom was gone, but she herself was the one that was lost. Sucked through an invisible black-hole. Stuck in an unforgiving gap between realities where thoughts were played backwards in some way that felt sickly like deja-vu. Stuck in a death-spiral.

No... speed like that didn't create denominational worm-holes.

But maybe playing with light did..

And they are indeed beings composed completely of light.

Space. Light. Time...

What even is time? Because a planet turns and things here eventually die only proves that these things here have a limit, a time within time. Who is to say time actually exist? If it does exist, does it have a limit too? If time does exist and it has a limit, is there a bigger picture beyond this existence that doesn't have a limit? Space is endless, but maybe it's even more vast than time itself, so maybe that's time's limit.

Time exists in space. Time is as time was expands through the aria that space provides from places that space is no longer, so time is distance?

Mayonnaise?

What is real anymore?

The young gem finds herself standing again, trying vainly to keep her thoughts afloat with more simple, trivial things. Things that she actually had answers for. She used some pebbles laying on the sand that had washed up from the surf as a detraction, taking a fist full and tossing them as hard as she could out into the waves. Watching them glide through the air before gravity gently guides them into the open water.

A blink as she watched the last gritty stone sink beneath the surface. Deciding she wanted to try and skip the last remaining rocks. Picking up the smoothest one she could feel, she raised it, narrow eyes set on the horizon once more before she angled her arm and pitched it.

She did it!

It skipped!

The first stone she ever tried to skip, SKIPPED!

...multiple times..

In fact the stone skidded along the surface at a rapid pace up until it was well out of sight.

"Really," voice gruff as she deadpanned, not amused in the slightest "you can't be serious. This is going to be a rule now. I Peridot; am never aloud to throw things. Ever." Not bothering to try and skip another rock, she sat back down onto the sand with a sigh before drawing her lips into a hard line. This was not her day. Or her night. The little green gem just couldn't seem to catch a break on this crummy planet.

A light flashed in the distance over the water robbing Peridot of her destructive thoughts before the sea parted harshly with a strong and sudden torrent of salty air. Sand picked up and was lifted into the air around the gem going way up onto the beach as an unknown force built like a hurricane bolted through the space directly over Peridot's head. She was knocked backwards in the flurry, laying on her back like a vulnerable starfish in the sand as her eyes stare at the stars above.

Now slightly damp and very confused, she just lays there. Trying vainly to figure out what happened with a surprised expression that almost reads "recalculating"

Something glistened up there.

The lights produced by the stars seemed to fracture as if they were reflected through something tangible but clear.

Water maybe..? Water in the air that wasn't rain?

The glistening was getting bigger. Closer.

Quickly.

As a split-second decision, the short gem tucked herself and rolled out of the way. The spot she had been laying exploded, promptly sending sand and mud up in all directions, but when it all stilled and vision cleared, Peridot was met with another shade of blue.

An angry shade of blue.

"You..."

"L- Lazuli?"


	2. Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A wild Lap has appeared

"Lapis! Ca- Calm down!" Peridot managed to wiggle her way out of the grasp of one large hand after another, each composed of cold ocean water "Le- Let's talk about this!" Her voice cracking dramatically with fright, this only made the blue gem in front of her laugh darkly, tattered skirts blowing about her.

"Look at you... look who's trapped and begging now!"

That gem... That wasn't the same nervous and melancholy Lapis Lazuli from before. This is a crazed and broken gem, power dripped from her very being thickly, sticky, and black like tar. Green eyes scanned the other, frantically analyzing this being. Everything about her was different, those eyes weren't mirrored or a fearful blue, they were deep, like literal pits standing out against the white of her eyes. Void of color. Her voice crawled with something rough and wet, almost like she were wheezing with every broken word. Pointed white teeth dotted her cracked lips in places, like they had grown out of the flesh to cause a perpetual toothy grin. Skin marred with dark lines a shade or two greener than her regular completion, bearing the heavy reminder of the fallen Malachite. Even her stance was different, she stood hunched like her spine had outgrown her body and her wings were more than slightly fogged with dirt.

Oh no... that wasn't Lapis anymore.. The fusion had scarred her beyond recognition.

She was a husk of what Lapis was and what Malachite tried to become..

This was a Phantom gem.

The existence before corruption.

"It's the fusion!" Finally one of the hands got a firm hold of her, crushing her small body something awful. Peridot cried out before gritting her teeth together, teetering on the edge of retreat "D- Do you remember the reason you fused in the first place?" That struck a nerve in the other, grip faltering considerably as she looked away from the gem she was torturing in favor of gazing at the sand in thought.

"Steven..." Without warning she squeezed the smaller again, bringing the other closer to her face so Peridot could stare into those hollow eyes. With a low and menacing whisper, the Phantom asks "You have.. hurt Steven?"

"Wh- What? Stars no!" The air around her was hot and smelled of rot, Peridot was instantly repulsed and made a face. With the pressure and heat that the blue gem emanated, she was far from comfortable "I- I came to a mutual stand with them seeing as we are fighting for a common goal! Put me down and let's talk like mature gems-"

"-Shut up, you are in no position to negotiate. I will decide what I'll do with you!"

"...Please?" A rough groan sounded from the taller, eventually putting Peridot down but keeping her grounded with water at her ankles like weights. Though she had no intent to try and escape anyway.

"You are..." After a prolonged pause, the blue gem tilted her head, eyes still drilling into her core "smaller.. than I remember."

"Yeah? I could say a lot about you.." She wouldn't say anything more, a hiss and a sneer made sure she didn't.

"J- Jasssper?" Lapis's gaze turned from the little gem to scan the beach, confused and tense.

"You don't have to worry about her-"

"-I refuse to believe you!"

"Refuse all you want, I'm pretty sure she hit mach-10 before flying out of this planet's atmosphere."

"She... she is gone? But how?" Now it was Peridot's turn to look at the sand.

"I followed... orders." She made it a point to leave out that she probably murdered the teams leader in the same sense.

They were there like that well into the night, Peridot informed the strange Lapis of the earth's current situation with the Cluster. Lapis eventually completely let the smaller gem go, opting instead to sit on the sand and look out over the unforgiving water. Without something better to do for the time being, Peridot sat beside her.

"Looks like... we are both stuck here, yeah?"

"I am, yes. Though you left here once before on your wings, you could easily come and go as you please-"

"-Come here and go where?"

"I don't know, wherever you want? I'm sure there are plenty of interesting planets out there. You are free now." That made the other fall silent, bringing her knees up and resting her face in her arm atop them. Lapis had only ever been trapped and Peridot only ever followed orders, maybe they weren't so different. "I'm very sure Steven would be grateful if you stuck around for a few centuries though."

"And be the prisoner of the Crystal Gems? No. Not again."

"No one said you had to be prisoner, I'm merely saying you should consider your options now that you have some and... Steven really cares for you." The sun was coming up, people would be filling out the beach soon. Peridot stood, rolling her shoulders with a content noise.

Dark eyes looked up at her "you are.. Leaving me to my thoughts?"

"For the time being, yes. It's nearly time for myself and Pearl to go about our business working on the drill." The expression on the blue gem's face looked torn between conflicted hurt and distastefully mild sadness. She was clearly upset. "You are welcome to accompany me in the barn, I suppose the others should know about you sooner or later." And with that, she walked off, letting the other simmer with her decisions.

The drill was coming along slowly. Pearl and Peridot didn't agree on a lot, but eventually they were able to compromise to a point and get something done. Peridot was currently pulling the seats out of the back of an old vehicle before she heard a noise at her side. Green eyes looking down momentarily, maybe she had knocked something over or dropped something, that was possible for she was still not accustom to touching, grasping, and feeling things without her limb enhancers-

"-STARS!" Peridot nearly flung her drill across the room in surprise. Dark eyes looked up at her from under some debris, the Phantom gem was on her hands and knees seeming to make an effort out of hiding. The green gem lowered her voice and hissed at the other "Lapis, what the heck! How did you sneak in here?"

Lapis didn't like the tone the short gem used with her one bit and narrowed her eyes, growling in the back of her throat. She still looked pretty gross, but at least she managed to retract those wings and cut the smell in half.

She was trying.

"Are you alright, Peridot?" Pearl's voice sounded from the front of the barn by the doors, echoing off the dusty barn walls slightly.

"Uh, yes. Just encountered some-" cold and thin fingers had gently wrapped around her free hand as she spoke, making her look back down at the hiding gem whom seemed to be trying to shrink into the mass of parts more and more, Lapis wouldn't meet her eyes, but at least the growling had stopped "-some issues involving the fabric of these chairs. I have the situation under control."

"Too soon..." The blue gem mouthed as she let go of the technicians hand, letting her resume her work in favor of finding a new location to spy on the Peridot from.

Work progressed like normal, seats were fitted into the hull they were working on. After they would finish the body of the drill, they would attach the drill head to it and wire everything together. Nearly half way there! The day was growing shorter as they argued, eventually Pearl excused herself to attend to Steven, the poor kid must still be having a rough time.

As soon as the white gem was gone, Lapis stepped out and approached the smaller "Is this... thing, really going to the center of the earth?"

"Mhmn. This with a majority if not all of us inside it."

"So what are you guys gonna do to destroy the cluster? I assume drilling down there to fight it isn't going to be the option."

"Destroy it..." Peridot stopped in her work and blinked for several moments. They didn't talk about that part of the mission yet, guess it would be pretty awkward to get down there, face to face with the big nasty and not have any further plans "I'm not sure... the core of this planet is made of liquid rock. Disturbing this liquid more than the cluster probably already has could very well destroy the planet."

"I see.. I'm nowhere near a tech-savvy gems level by any standards, but how about creating something that could maybe cause this thing to go permanently dormant?" The green gem turned around, leaning against the work bench as she crossed her arms over her chest in thought. The water gem had a pretty good idea, though this means she would have to come up with a device to preform the task of dormatizing something so large. "I mean.. removing it couldn't be a good idea, right?"

"Correct.. Removing it could create too much negative space and collapse the planet from the inside, too much interaction with the Cluster could prompt it's premature reformation and destroy the planet anyway.. Permanently dormant though, hmm. You... have good intentions. I'll look into this with my free time."

What is time though?

Negative space..?

Don't even think about it, Peridot. We don't need that kind of confusion right now.

"Are you..?"

"What?"

"..You started to look really far away, are you alright?"

"Y- Yeah. Just thinking." Thinking was starting to become a serious problem with green as of recent. Peridot shook her head, clearing her thoughts before she turned her attention to the other, taking in the stubble changes in this character. Voice was sounding better, and her posture wasn't hunched. Skirts were still tattered and those marks still mangled her flesh as well as the white teeth dotting her lips still, but she looked physically better.

Those eyes were still an issue Peridot couldn't get used to.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she shifted her weight between her feet as lime met negative black "how are you?" The gem in question walked to the workbench beside the smaller and sat up on a clear portion of it, rubbing her upper arms as if she were cold.

"I feel..." a pause, as if she were organizing her thoughts "not good.."

"How do you mean?"

"I feel as if insignificant parts of me are missing, like just gone. And everything is hazy.." she quirked her head to the side and squinted, glaring at nothing in the distance as a particular thought passed behind her eyes "..Peridot?"

"Yes?"

"Is my gem cracked?" She turned so her back was to the other, Peridot moving to give the tear-shaped stone nestled in between the Phantom's shoulder blades a basic examination. It looked darker in color towards it's rounded base, it wasn't a translucent gem to start with, but it clearly looked as if it had a deep black mist inside it. These were the traits of a Phantom gem, she's seen them before, but mostly in the Amethysts and other quartz-based stones back on Homeworld, but those were also very common gems. Peridot even checked it's smooth surface with her fingertips for any hair-line fractures as well. Not even a skuff. The stone was undamaged.

"Your gem isn't cracked, but your personality sure is," this earned her a sharp glare from over the taller gem's shoulder and a low growl "having been in an unstable fusion and exhausting all of your gem's power on said fusion has tainted your gem."

"Tainted...?"

"Yes. I strongly advise you refrain from anymore fusing, you could disrupt your gem more and put your fusion partner at risk for becoming tainted as well." Phantom Lapis knitted her brows together in a look of determination before standing.

"Steven.. He healed my gem once," her dark gaze turned to the open barn door, the sun had fallen quickly outside currently marking the time as late evening "he can do it again, can't he?" Without waiting for a response, she slid off the counter and strode to the door quickly. Peridot scrambled in her direction, eyes wide and an odd expression of fear on her face.

"Lapis wait! You don't exactly look like yourself right now, maybe this isn't the best time to just walk into their establishme-" reaching a hand out as she spoke, she slid her fingers around the blue gem's wrist only to be thrown backwards by muddy wings that erupted from the other's stone.

The Phantom whirled on the shorter gem whom was sprawled on the ground by the barn's door "DON'T... Don't touch me like that.."

"R- Right, that was my mistake!" Little green got to her feet slowly, holding a hand up in defense as she made eye-contact with the angered gem in front of her. Lapis stormed in her direction, teeth bared and arms splayed out like her wings, her entire being poised to attack.

The stench had returned.

"You DARE attempt to CONTROL me?" Peridot lost what balance she had gained and ended up half crab-walking half throwing herself backwards away from Lapis in a blind panic, this only seemed to feed the taller gem's blood-lust as those eyes practically grinned with something cannibalistic. Her voice a booming roar that left the smaller shaking "I'LL show YOU what it REALLY means to control another gem! You'll be SORRY-"

"Your right!" her back came into full contact with the painted wood of the building's door as her body trembled, her insides crawling with fear as her eyes screwed shut, waiting for her slow and painful death that only a Phantom gem could provide "You are so right, Lapis. I should not have done that and I over-stepped my boundaries. I am sorry!"

Well her impending death didn't come.

After several seconds of silence, the green gem opened her eyes and looked up at the other whom was standing just before her. She stood up, alert and silently worried. The Phantom had grown very still, a distant look in her eyes. Arms at her sides and wings held low.

"Lapis..?"

"I... I was going to kill you, Peridot." Voice gravely and quiet, the smaller gem had to strain herself to listen "I was going to murder you in cold blood."

"That wasn't you, Lazuli." Peridot took a few tentative steps forward toward the gem "I never got the opportunity to really get to know you as an equal, but I know that this isn't you."

"I'm... I'm!" Lapis sunk to her knees, wings falling in a heap of mud, vanishing onto the ground and becoming nothing more than useless smelly puddles around her. Her hands coming up to hide her face as her shoulders shook with a quaking breath, animal-like whimpers sounding from behind her thin hands "I'm a monster, Peridot!"

"No no, hey... don't talk like that.." soon she was standing in front of the hunched gem that she was absolutely terrified of two minutes ago "Malachite was a monster, you... you're just very sick." Dark eyes lifted from her hands, a thick chunky liquid seeping from those wide holes, almost like tears, but they were sticky and black as night.

"Ssssssick?"

Peridot nodded "Yes, just sick." She wanted to reach out and wipe the gunk off the other gem's face but didn't want to risk upsetting the taller and throwing her into another hate fueled murder frenzy "and sick can get better! You're okay, you'll be okay."

Lapis had suddenly thrown her arms around the little green gem, pressing her face into the smaller's shoulder as she cried silently. Peridot was confused by this gesture, gently and cautiously returning the embrace "I... I'm sorry too, Peri.."


End file.
